London: Milon Raonic became the first Canadian to qualify for the semifinals of the ATP World Tour Finals with a 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 victory over Dominic Thiem of Austria here Thursday evening. Going into the match both needed a victory to join Novak Djokovic in the last four stage. Sadly for the Austrian, the Canadian’s arsenal of shots was too difficult to handle.
In an earlier match played on the day, Novak Djokovic trying to reclaim the No.1 position from Andy Murray was ruthless in his 6-1, 6-2 demolition of Belgium’s David Goffin at the O2 Arena here. The Serb took just 69 minutes to book his place in the semis for the fourth time in five outings.
Raonic playing in the Ivan Lendl group once more banked on his serve to get the better of Thiem. He did not lose serve once and in the second set broke the Austrian in the eighth game to close out the match quite comfortably in 75 minutes. He will next meet Andy Murray in the semis, the sixth encounter between the two this season with the Briton winning all the previous five.
“I’ve played Andy many times this year,” Raonic told reporters. “I haven’t gotten the better of him. The one thing I might have going in my favour is how much he has on his shoulders right now (the burden of being No. 1), a lot of consecutive matches, and what he’s playing for,” he added in reference to Murray bidding to end the year as World No.1.
Djokovic, in his match against Goffin, was once more his tetchy self having an argument with the chair umpire of time-wasting tactics. However, all that was forgotten as he punched Goffin out of the match breaking his opponent five times to emerge an easy winner.
“Im very glad my game is going in the right direction. Today (Thursday) I felt the most comfortable so far in the tournament,” Djokovic said. “I felt like I increased the quality of tennis compared to the other matches.”
Agencies
